Ornamentation of sheet material



19460 G. LANDELLS ETAL 2,947,058

ORNAMENTATION OF SHEET MATERIAL Filed Feb. 7, 1956 In ventom A ttorheyoUnited States Patent ORNAMENTATION F SHEET MATERIAL George Landells,Leeds, andWilliam Bragg, West Ardsley, near Wakefield, England,assignors to The Bradford Dyers Association Limited, Bradford, andBleachers Association Limited, Manchester, England Filed Feb. 7, 195 6,Ser. No. 564,081

Claims priority, application Great Britain Feb. 10, 1955 i 9 Claims.'(CI. 26-69) Patented Aug. 2, 1960 is the pre-treatment of the materialwith an agent which will set by heat applied during or after theornamenting, or by the action of a chemical reagent applied after theornamenting and setting the agent orbringing about a reaction with thechemical reagent to maintain the ornamentation.

If the compressively shrinkable material is of nylon, a polyethyleneterephthalate or other thermoplastic which when deformed while heatedwill retain its deformed shape until it is heated to a highertemperature the ornamentation is advantageously fixed by heating thematerial to an appropriate heat-setting temperature during theornamenting, the elfect of the heating being to fix or stabilize theornamentation against mechanical action at a temperature lower than thatreached during the treatment.

For example a cotton fabric may be impregnated'with a thermosettingresin in aqueous solution and then dried.

-It is"then ornamented according .to the invention and heatedat atemperature to complete the condensation of the resin, thus fixing theornamentation. I Preferably,

' one of the rollers or other elements of the shrinking surface, e.g.against a rubber belt, while that 'surface contracts, sothat thematerialcontracts with the surface.- Such materials include, as well asfabrics, leather, regenerated cellulose and plastic sheets and coatedtextiles such as bookcloth, imitation leather cloth andflthe like.

It is an fobjectiof the present invention to ornament compressivelyshrinkable sheet material by changing the configuration of the materialby the random formation of buckles, crinkles or .the like. I H

It is a further object of the invention tocompressively shrink sheetmaterial and at the same' time to form an ornamentation thereon.

A compressively shrinkable sheet material is ornamented in accordance.withthis invention by compressively shrinking the material in contactwith a second buckable sheet material so that the buckles formed'in thesecond material are transferred to the first material; The invention isparticularly applicable to the ornamentation of fabricspthe second sheetmaterial may advantageously be paper. 7 Y 5 The nature of 'the eifectproduced on a fabric under given conditions with the same second sheetmaterial depends on the fabric under treatment- .Fabrics pos apparatusis heate'd to a temperature sufiicient to set theresin used,'but thetime of contact with the heated roller'is usuallvinsufiicient tocomplete the condensation and an additional heating step is thenrequired. Eventher-moplastic materials may" also be subjected to thisresin treatment, having the effect in thisinstance of stiffening thematerial rather than fixing the ornamentation. i Where the material iscomposed wholly of cellulose acetate or contains a high proportion ofcellulose ace tate', thematerial may be. temporarily plasticised bywater or solutions of swelling agents to render the. material aresectional views through two shrinking machines of different typesoperating acc'ord ihg to this invention; t i

Figures 3 and 4 are views showing two different ornamentations obtainedaccording tothe invention.

Referring first to Figure l, which shows the preferred machine forcarrying out the invention, a thick endless sessing smooth shinysurfaces, such as satins or sateens, respond particularly well. Fabricsmay beprepared for w the process with advantage by calendering orpressing to produce a smooth or glossy surfaces The effect. pro ducedvaries from a random distribution of coarse buckles or puckers, runninggenerally across the .width of the material, to finer buckles orripples.

The material which buckles is generally stiffer than the compressivelyshrinkable sheet material, and al though it may shrink slightly beforeit starts to -buckle, this is unimportant so long as some buckling takesplace. For instance, some p-aper will shrink by-l er 2% but thereafterwill buckle, The shrinking conditions must be'such-that thecompressively shrinkable'sheet material not 'only'shrinks-but acceptsthebuckle's"andthat the second 'sheefimaterialbuckles? Ifthe' first'material is treated along-under the shrinking conditions in question;

itwill shrink but not buckle, whereas'the secondjmaterial treatedalone-willbucklel a 7 The ornamentation i s resistantto normalhandlingbut may be'largely or wholly lost on wettingor-w'ashing thematerialunless steps areitakento fix it. Such step rubber or equivalent belt 11.passes around two rollers 12 and 13, the fabric or other material 16being fed on to the belt between it and a third roller 14 at a point inadvance of. that at which the surface of the belt begins to contract inreversing its curvature. I The roller 14 can be adjusted in thedirection of the arrows C to vary the pressure between the roller andthe belt. Movement can be impartedto the belt by driving any of thethree rollers. Thesecond sheet material 17 is also fed into the nipbetween the belt 11 and the roller 14 on the side of the material remotefrom the beltl It can be fed between the fabric or the like and thebelt, but this" is not generally so effective. The second sheet material17 is fed into the nip betweerrthe roller 14 and the belt 11 from a roll1 5 and passes around the roller 14 under tensiomf If the material 17 is fed"directly. to the nip as shown by the dotted line 17"- there is aItendency for the material to crease as it enters the nip, formingundesirable markings on the material 16. v,

It is Well known that the degree of shrinkage imparted by aconipressiveshrinking machineto a'fabric can be varied, particularly by varying'thepressure, temperature or moisture content, andjthei'efore the.ornamentation. can

. bevaried; The greater the pressure, the more numerous and smaller arethe buckles produced. Naturally the actual number of buckles producedunder given conditions p nds on the na u e nd illness f e e cndme a i l-It is not only the pressurebutalsothe temperatures that must beappropriately adjusted. For instance-in treating one cellulose acetatefabric and paper together under a given pressure, substantially noornamentation was produced at 200 F. but a good crinkled effect wasproduced at 275 F. Figures 3 and 4 show two different ornamentationsobtained in the apparatus shown in Figure 1. The general surface of thematerial remains flat, but buckles 18. are formed. These are transferredfrom the second sheet material.

Figure 2 shows a machine of the kind in which there is a narrow passagebetween a roller and a curved bed plate and the material to be shrunk isfed into this passage at a higher speed than it is allowed to emerge. Inthe machine illustrated a roller 20 and an electrically heated bedplate21 form a feed nip and another roller 22 cooperates with the firstto form an outlet nip. The compressively shrinkable sheet material 23and the second sheet material 24 are fed into the inlet nip over a rail25 and then pass to the passage 26 finally leaving the machine throughthe outlet nip. The roller 20 has a hard rubber surface and rotates at afaster speed than the roller 22 which has a soft rubber surface. Thewidth of the passage is adjusted by moving the rollers 20 and 22 in thedirection of the arrows A and B.

While we have described and illustrated two partic-v ular compressiveshrinking machines for use in this invention any other type orconstruction of machine may also be used.

In a variation of the invention the compressively shrinkable sheetmaterial is compressively shrunk in contact with a third sheet materialwhich also buckles, such as that shown by broken line 24' in Fig. 2, thethird sheet material being on the opposite side of the first sheetmaterial from the second sheet material. The third material may or maynot be the same as the second;

The compressively shrinkable sheet material may be subjected to twoseparate ornamenting processes, the conditions in each processpreferably being different, so that two ornamental effects aresuperimposed on each other.

Instead of using paper as the second sheetrmaterial we may usecardboard, a plastic, thin sheet metal, a fabric stiffened by a resin,starch or other stiffening agent, or even a fabric so woven that it willnot readily shrink, but rather tends to buckle, if compressively shrunkalone.

If either of the surfaces between which the two materials are pressedduring the treatment is discontinuous the compressive shrinking isdiscontinuous over the sur@ face of the compressively shrinkable sheetmaterial and ornamentation according to the invention takes place onlyin selected areas. The remaining areas which are not compressivelyshrunk will form ruffies, frills, puckers or the like between thecompressively shrunk areas.

The sheet material which buckles may be discontinuous or have anembossed surface. In the first case no buckles will be formed in thoseareas not in contact with the second sheet material and in the secondcase the buckles will be superimposed on an embossed design.

Some examples will now, be given.

Example 1 Example 2 These crinkles were transferred to the leather whichalso shrank 7.5%.

v Example 3 The roller 14 of a conipriessive'shrinkage machine of 1 thetype shown in Figure l was heated to 340 F. The

roller was pressed against the rubber belt 11 and a test length of paper0.003 inch thick passed through the machine. The paper shortened,essentially by buckling, by ti /2%, A cellulose acetate satin fabric wasled from a roll and superimposed on a paper sheet of the same material'as'the test length, also delivered from a roll so that the satin faceof the fabric was adjacent to the paper. The two sheet materials wereled between the roller 14., and the belt 11 with the paper next to theroller. Shortening and buckling of the paper took place and the numerousbuckles were simultaneously reproduced in the satin'fabric to give anattractive decorative effect. a The fabric was found to have shrunk by 9/z%.

Example 4 A specimen of aplain weave cotton fabric was impregnated .witha solution of 7.5 parts (all parts are by weight). of a methylatedtrimethylol melamine precondensate and 0.5 part of ammonia dihydrogenphosphate 1 in 92 parts of water and mangled to contain 90 parts ofTheornamented fabric emerging'from the machine was of the paper card,buckles being transferredto-the plastic sheet,.which also shrankslightly.

The plastic sheet did not buckle .whenpassed-through the machine alone.

separated from the buckled paper and heated in a hot airoven for 3minutes at 300 F. The ornamentation wasthus rendered resistanttorepeated washing in a soap solution. 7 Example 5 A cellulose'acetatesatin fabric was fed into the passage between the roller 20 and thebedplate 21 of a machine of the type illustrated in Figure 2 togetherwith paper 0.0025 inch thick, the paper being adjacent the bedplate. Thebedplate was maintained at 250 F. The roller. 20.was driven at a surfacespeed of 11.7 feet per minuteand the roller. 22 at a surface speed of6.0 feet per minute. The satin fabric emerging from the confiningpassagecarried innumerable-small lateral ripples. The satin fabricwas'passed through the machine alone and itlsh'runk, but noornamentation was obtained.

We claim:

1. An ornamenting process in which ornamental buckles are formedin acompressively shrinkable sheet material which'comprises compressivelyshrinking said material .while in surface contact with a compressivelybucklable sheet material on each side of said compressively shrinkablesheet material. f 1 r 2. An ornamenting process in which ornamentalbuckles; are, for-med in a compressively shrinkable sheet material whichcomprises compressiyely shrinking said material while in surface contactwith a compressively bucklable sheet materialin selected areas over thesurface of said compressively shrinkable sheet. material.

3. A process for ornamenting compressively shrinkablesheetmaterial'which normally shrinks but does not buekle when subjectedto the action of a compressive shrinking machine, which processcomprises producing ornamental buckles in the shrinkable sheet materialby subjecting said material to the action of a compressive shrinkingmachine While in surface contact with comprespressively shrinkable sheetmaterial is polyvinyl chloride.

7. A process for ornamenting compressively shrinkable sheet materialwhich normally shrinks but does not buckle when subjected to the actionof a compressive shrinking machine, which process comprises producingornamental buckles in the shrinkable sheet material by subjecting saidmaterial to the action of a compressive shrinking machine while insurface contact with compressively bucklable sheet material whichnormally buckles when subjected to the action of a compressive shrinkingmachine, and treating the. shrinkable sheet material to retain theornamental buckles.

8; A process according to claim 7 wherein the compressively shrinkablematerial is thermoplastic.

9. A process according to claim 7 wherein the compressively shrinkablesheet material is .polyvinyl chloride.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,643,147 Angier Sept. 20, 1927 2,078,904 Gluett Apr. 27, 1937 2,079,273Angier u May 4, 1937 1 2,146,694 Wrigley et a1. Feb. 7, 1939 2,667,910Grettve Feb. 2, 1954, 2,825,117 Evans et a1. Mar. 4, 1958 FOREIGNPATENTS 165,590 Australia Oct. 13, 1955 376,040 Great Britain July 7.1932

